Celebrate the First Amendment by Speaking Out Against Antisemitism

With Hanukkah ending on Monday, and a celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth coming on Thursday, Protect The 1st would like to take a moment to ask you to exercise your First Amendment rights by speaking out against antisemitism whenever you encounter it.

We know that this is not your typical holiday message, but then the same can be said for the slaughter of Jewish families celebrating the Festival of Lights on Bondi Beach in Australia.

Words have consequences. Words that demonize people, whatever their race, religion, or partisan leanings, paves the way for violence. Sensible words are in short supply in some quarters of late.  

Some of the top-listed podcasters and online influencers have hosted antisemites, politely asking question about question: Did Hitler really start World War Two, or was it Winston Churchill, who habitually overspent and was indebted to Jewish bankers? One of the top podcasters on Spotify, with millions of listeners, has said the Jewish religion is pedophilic and centered around child sacrifice. She also claims, with no proof, that Israel’s Mossad was behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Others, from another ideological direction, criticize Israel’s military response to the October 7, 2023, massacre without bothering to take even a moment to recognize what a horrendous, inhumane and utterly disgusting attack Hamas launched on Israel that day. Worse, some have demonized Jewish students and faculty on campuses, harassing them and cutting off their access to common facilities like the campus library.

One influencer, Ben Shapiro, is speaking out by speaking truth. “Conspiracy is not courage,” Shapiro says. “It is laziness with a microphone.” He is calling for “courage and clarity,” to “refuse to indulge the lie, even when it is popular.”

Some hide behind the pretense that failing to host these views would amount to censorship and cancel culture. The First Amendment does not obligate anyone to air views that are unhinged and aimed at harming our fellow Americans.

Spotify, are you listening?
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In this holy season, we want to celebrate the First Amendment and use it to embrace our fellow Americans of all faiths. Christian, Muslim, Jew and all others should hold fast to President Washington’s message in 1790 to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island – a vision of American in which “every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

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